Green Homes

Recent Features

Acting as general contractors, my wife Cathy (a nurse practitioner) and I (a jazz musician) succeeded in building a Five-Star+ Energy StarLabeling system sponsored by the Environmental Protection Agency and the US Department of Energy for labeling the most energy-efficient products on the market; applies to a wide range of products, from computers and office equipment to refrigerators and air conditioners. home for less than $125 a square foot. If we could do it, so can you.

In the cold climate of coastal Maine, effective air sealing is critical to maximizing energy efficiency. The architect for the project, Bruce Coldham, said, “We have tried many approaches to air sealing over the past twenty years, but we hit the jackpot with these buildings. The results were spectacular. We achieved a remarkable final airtightness of 0.79 ACH50 consistent over three similar buildings. Without the comprehensive air-sealing design and implementation, the buildings would have been seven-plus times leakier.”

Before retrofit work began, Jane Bindley's 1978 ranch house on the shore of Squam Lake was an ordinary fiberglass-insulated energy hog. Bindley had a dream: to turn her home in central New Hampshire into a net-zero-energy house. How hard could that be?

As it turned out, pretty hard. But with help from a dedicated team of experts and a generous budget, Bindley achieved her dream.

With help from the local utility, a California builder has turned a foreclosed property into a cutting-edge energy-efficient demonstration home. The Sacramento Municipal Utility District (SMUD), the sixth-largest public utility in the U.S., has been working with builders and homeowners to construct energy-efficient homes for many years. SMUD recently partnered with the National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) on this Energy Efficient Remodel Demonstration program.